May 26, 2016 By Cara Host 5 min read

Bethel Park School Board hired two contractors on May 24 to fix structural defects in Benjamin Franklin Elementary School, although some school directors voiced uneasiness with spending so much money on an aging building at a time of declining enrollment.

The concrete subfloor is deteriorating because of water that has been seeping in the crawl space under the building for many years. The board agreed to spend $813,500 to replace or repair portions of the floor and to ventilate and drain the crawl space to prevent more water infiltration.

“I’m frustrated to have to spend all that money on something that shouldn’t have been a problem in the first place,” board member Ron Werkmeister said.

The school district’s architect, Kevin Hayes of Hayes Design Group, discovered the problem in January during a routine inspection ahead of a planned renovation of the building. District officials originally planned to replace the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system and do other cosmetic improvements, but that project has been shelved indefinitely.

Superintendent Joseph Pasquerilla asked the board to consider doing the bare minimum of repairs to make the building safe, at an estimated cost of $340,000. That way, it might buy the board time to decide what to do with the building over the long term.

Hayes, though, cautioned against that move, saying that the bare minimum of repairs would buy only about a year, and prices will go up by at least $400,000 if the district decides to make more extensive repairs next year.

The board voted 7-2 to go with the wider scope of repairs, which Hayes said should keep the building structurally sound for at least 15 to 20 years. Voting against were Donna Cook, board president, and Connie Ruhl.

“No matter what we do, we’re going to have to keep that building open for a number of years,” board member Jim Means said. “I know we’re dealing with declining enrollment, but even if we decided to close an elementary school, it probably wouldn’t be that one. It’s one of our largest.”

The board trimmed some aspects of the project. The district will not replace the windows and won’t cover the exterior walls with an exterior insulation and finishing system, at a savings of $442,100. Hayes recommended both upgrades, but they were at a lower priority than the subfloor repairs.

The original estimate for the repairs was about $2.3 million, but the district received competitive bids. The architect and the district’s construction manager, David Disque, found better ways of accessing the crawl space, which cut costs.

Gurtner Construction of Crafton will do the concrete work, at a cost of $715,000. Lugaila Mechanical of Thornburg will ventilate the crawl space and divert water away from the building at a cost of $98,500.

Crews will perform the work all summer, and they may not finish until late September. Since some of the work will occur while school is in session, workers will be instructed to limit noise to avoid disturbing classes.

In other business May 24:

• The board approved the purchase of new reading books, but not for everyone in the elementary grades. Bethel Park will purchase McGraw-Hill’s Wonders program for the third and fourth grades, at a cost of $207,587.

A committee made up of teachers some administrators recommended buying books for all elementary students, but Pasquerilla recommended a full purchase for only the older children, and the program will be piloted in some of the other grades. Other classes will use the district’s current reading books, which are over ten years old.

The full program for all elementary grades might be purchased later, but school directors expressed concern about going all in without knowing how the program will work.

“I have seen many programs brought in, only to be shelved a short while later,” Cook said.

Pam Dobos cast the lone dissenting vote, explaining that she wanted to follow teachers’ recommendations and saying adopting the full program would allow for more consistency between grades.

Sharon Janosik, a parent of two elementary-aged children, agreed.

“Trust your educators. I trust them,” she told the board.

• The board approved several coaches, including those in the football program. The district was late in approving head coach Jeff Metheny and his assistants, which caused an uproar among parents and players.

Board members said they were late in approving the coaches to a discrepancy in the coaches’ stipend. The collective bargaining agreement specifies that the head coach is supposed to be paid a stipend of $8,203, but the head coach was paid more than $1,000 more than that this school year.

The board approved Metheny’s stipend for next year at the lower amount listed in the agreement. The board also approved about 12 assistant, ninth-grade and middle-school football coaches, as well as coaches for swimming, diving, track, wrestling, basketball and rifle teams.